REFLECTOR:Gear Speed

[John Dibble]

Scott,
Welcome to the club.  I did the same thing 6 months ago.  Clearly the 
emergency gear down procedure is flawed and finding a fix is on my long 
list of to-dos.  Even if the hydraulics are working, I caution against 
retracting.  I tried it and there was a deafening resonating noise in 
the cabin and I understand this indicates a dangerous air flow situation 
that can destroy the prop.  Since you have added the aluminum plate, 
perhaps you won't have this problem, but of course you can't retract.  
It will fly ok without the plate at 130 kias with gear down.

John

Chuck Jensen wrote:

>Scott,
>
>If I understood your description, you were going to leave the mains down as
>well as the (now fixed) nose gear down?  As you noted, there's not much
>hardware left to blow off the front so why don't you retract the mains and
>have at it.  At some point, the nose gear may impart nose down drag but it
>can probably be overcome with some elevator trim and maybe a little
>encouragement on the stick.
>
>When you figure out the cause (if you haven't already), how about sharing?
>Be assured, we're not celebrating in your misfortune but I would hope you
>wouldn't begrudge the rest of us an opportunity to learn from it.  
>
>Have a safe, if somewhat slower flight home for Christmas.  When you put it
>back together, it'll be an ideal opportunity to make all those little
>improvements you've been thinking about.  End product; better, faster,
>prettier!  Not all bad.
>
>Despite all this, have a good holiday.
>
>Chuck Jensen
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: reflector-admin@tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-admin@tvbf.org]On
>Behalf Of scott@tnstaafl.net
>Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 12:38 AM
>To: reflector@tvbf.org
>Subject: REFLECTOR:Gear Speed
>
>
>I landed at CXP yesterday with my nose gear up.  I tried for 1/2 an hour
>to get it to come down but it refused. Long story I will tell later when
>I'm a home.
>
>Nobody was hurt, me and my wife.  Though she was shaken up quite a bit by
>the event.
>
>The plane handled it well.  Its truly amazing how far the nose drops
>without a nose gear. A considerable amount of the nose was ground off, and
>of course the nose gear doors were trashed which were open.  It ground off
>a couple inches of the speed brake as well though it still functions.
>
>My question is about gear extended speed. I'm going to have to fly home
>from Cason City, NV to Grants NM with the gear down.  About a 3.5 hour
>flight at normal speeds.
>
>I've installed a temporairy aluminum plate over the gaping hole where the
>geard doors and some of the surrounding fusalage usde to be.  I've removed
>the main gear doors and taped the brake lines to the gear legs.
>
>I'm assuming the speed limit was done to keep the gear doors on and since
>i"m flying without them I can now go as fast as I can peddle.
>
>Anybody see anything wrong with that?  I'd call the factory but I'm pretty
>sure they are closed for the holidays.
>
>Scott
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